Museo San fedele

In the heart of Milan, the Museo San Fedele fills a Sixteenth-century church with a dialogue between art and belief. The Jesuit fathers have steered that conversation for centuries, and it runs through every room. You step in from the street's rush and find chapels, a crypt and galleries under one roof.

The museum opened at the end of 2014 after a decade of restoration, but its story begins in the Fifties. A gallery inside the church then set out to bridge art and faith, championed by Father Arcangelo Favaro. He called in Mario Sironi and Lucio Fontana to join the dialogue. Fontana answered with 'Il Sacro Cuore', an altarpiece of Christ appearing to Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque, and it remains a highlight. The crypt, completed in 1653, is given to the Passion of Christ, and statues of angels and prophets keep watch.

The works spread across the sacristy, the sacello and further rooms, each with a story of its own. Francesco M. Richini gave the sacristy its Baroque shape, and the Taurino brothers adorned it with carvings in walnut wood. Panels of biblical scenes stand beside statues of Jesuit saints. Modern work answers them: Claudio Parmiggiani's 'Corona di spine' takes the face of Christ as its theme, in barbed wire and gold. David Simpson's monochrome paintings add a further contemporary layer, while relics from the Seventeenth and Eighteenth centuries recall the church's historical prestige. And in the Chapel of the Dancers, named for La Scala's dancers, Mimmo Paladino has installed his silver slippers.